The New Kenya Cooperative Creameries has announced an increment in milk prices from Sh36 per liter to between Sh38 and Sh40 as it seeks to enhance its market share nationally to 40 per cent and benefit over 160,000 smallholder farmers.

In this, the milk processor is set to increase milk sales from farmers in the country from Sh4.5bn to Sh6bn following the upgrade of its plants in Dandora, Sotik, Eldoret and Uasin Gishu at a cost of one billion shillings.

According to data from the Kenya Dairy Board, the state owned dairy processor has increased its share in the market from 23 per cent to 35 per cent since 2016 after upgrading of factories in Eldoret and Dandora.

The New KCC is upgrading the Sotik factory at a cost of Sh200m and this will enable it increase the factory’s processing capacity from the current 60,000 liters to 100,000 liters of raw milk per day.

In this, dairy farmers in the region are set to see upturn in their income from Sh850m to about 1.5bn in a year according to data from the processor.